


Dream On

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction
Genre: Implied Smut, Implied orgy, Louis POV, M/M, Magic, Shared Dreams, harry and louis kiss once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2019-01-30 03:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12644895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “So, I hear you boys are having trouble connecting.” The woman says. She has thick, grey hair and wrinkles around her eyes, but she still looks happy. She’s only proven right when they all give different answers at the exact same time.“Well, not really.” Liam says.“Yeah,” Is what Niall decides on.“I guess.” Zayn shrugs.“No!” From Harry.“Kind of.” Louis decides on.or: the boys go see an Irish witch, as recommended by Niall, to try and re-connect.





	Dream On

**Author's Note:**

  * For [delsicle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/delsicle/gifts).



> I've never written a cannon fic before - so I hope this lives up to everyone's expectations. Enjoy and feel free to come find me on [tumblr.](http://creamcoffeelou.tumblr.com/)

The show was incredible.  
The lights, the people, the judges, the feeling of being on stage – it all left Louis feeling a little more than alive and a whole lot more like he’s on his way to being on top of the world.  
A buzzing energy fills the room and Louis is starting to find it hard to keep his hands to himself. He’s all over everyone – forcing Liam to give him piggy back rides, playfully shoving Niall around, hugging Harry, and tickling Zayn. He knows it’s annoying sometimes, when he gets in these moods where the energy is too much for his body to handle, but he can’t stop.  
Physical constant helps calm him, is the thing, helps ground him and make him feel like the things that he’s feeling aren’t too much or not enough or wrong. So, he really can’t help it, but he also doesn’t know how to stop.  
It had been especially bad at the bungalow when they were all too close together and getting to know each other much too quickly, but now it’s, probably, just as bad. Maybe even worse. The looks Liam shoots him and the fond, but tired, grins that he gets from Harry – they all add up enough to tell him he should calm down, but he can’t. He feels like he’s on an adrenaline high, like he’s just had six full cups of coffee in one sitting and there’s so much extra energy coursing through him that he just can’t contain it.  
He knows they’ve just absolutely smashed it, is the thing. Their passion was at an all-time high, the adrenaline and excitement of finally being at the judge’s house was settling in, still, and it was their best performance yet. They did so well, even though there’s still that edge of nervousness that he can’t really help. Excitement is practically seeping out of him, now, as he downs an entire glass of water and tries his best to cool himself down before he over heats. He has no clue how the other boys are containing themselves when he wants to scream about how they’re about to make it!  
The other boys are excited, too, of course, but Louis has a slight tendency to take things over the top. Harry is doing his silly little dances that he always does while he pours himself a large glass of water and Liam has a wide smile on his face that would easily give away his excitement. Niall and Zayn have run off somewhere – likely to find some alcohol. It’s all just so much.  
In the two months since boot camp, they’ve grown both as a unit and individually. They’re going through media training and being forced to learn how to use social media differently than they would have if they were still just normal teenage boys, but it’s all such an incredible buzz of excitement that he doesn’t know how to keep it all inside of himself.  
It’s incredible to think that just a short time ago they’d all been nobodies. Just signing up for X Factor and discovering themselves. Now, they’re through. It’s something Louis has long-since dreamed of but never thought he’d really achieve, but living it is a feeling he can’t even begin to describe.  
They have the chance to be real stars – to be famous in a way that he hadn’t ever comprehended. It’s hard, still, to wrap his head around it entirely. He’d walked onto that stage expecting to be a solo artist, and he’d walked away with the four people that would soon become his best friends. Something about it feels incredible, perhaps because it had been so unexpected. He still thinks about that high that he’d gotten the day of X Factor. The extreme low he’d hit when he was being sent home and then how he was brought back up so quickly and so suddenly when he realized they were through. He’s not entirely sure he could replicate that feeling even if he tried.  
Standing in the waiting room now, though, with sixteen other nervous people and groups, he thinks it’s oddly like the feeling of being down that first day on X Factor. It’s only the first week but it’s still incredibly real – people are going to go home today and others are going to make it through. He’s still buzzing, but as the high slowly comes down, he realizes that there is no promise that they’re safe – that they’re going to make it through and be famous and achieve all of their hopes and dreams.  
He finally sits down on the couch with the other boys, all waiting, waiting, waiting. He and Harry and pressed up against each other, Louis being sandwiched between Harry and Zayn. Niall is pacing around the room, and Liam is starting at the telly screen so intently that it feels like the screen should shatter into a million pieces.  
It’s announced quickly that they are safe – they’d come in fourth place and were going through to the next week. As soon as that was announced, everyone’s energy spiked even more, all over again. It’s an incredible feeling, even though it’s sad to watch some of their friends go.  
“Anyone up for dinner?” Liam asks, the happiness clear on his face.  
The five of them go out and eat, celebrating a week of success happily.

The next week rolls around all too fast. Performance day is getting closer every minute and the stress levels in the house are rising faster than ever. He knows it’s only going to get worse as it comes closer to more people getting eliminated, but it’s different to just know something than to experience it.  
They’re practicing more than ever, now. Every day for hours a day, to the point where Louis has to drink herbal teas to keep his throat in good shape. He’s never had an herbal tea in his life, and it’s horrible, but it’s another one of those things he thinks will be worth it in the end.  
Yet, practice is slowly getting worse. He’s not sure at all if it’s the stress that’s finally starting to get to the lot of them or if they’re already starting to lose their motivation as a group. He hopes, genuinely, that it’s just the stress. One Direction is a new group, but he already has fallen in love with it, with the singing, with being around the other boys.  
Their vocals are good – but not great. Something about them is off and it’s frustrating. Their harmonies aren’t perfect and their dancing is sub-par. It’s to the point that their vocal coach is leaving sessions early, nearly giving up on them.  
“Hey, boys,” Niall says at the end of their most recent practice. “I think I have an idea? Me mum used to see this woman who claims to have incredible powers in helping people reconnect with themselves and with others, too.”  
“Niall,” Liam starts with a groan.  
“No, hear me out, mates. Like. Even if it’s just a hoax, it could be worth it? Just to do something together as mates, rather than co-workers. Ye heard what was said. If we keep actin’ like this, we’re gonna get eliminated this week. We gotta do something.” There’s a melody of sighs from around the room, but ultimately, they all agree.  
They google the woman Niall had talked about and decide to set an appointment with her for the next evening. The executive decision was that the five of them had to try something lest they were to go home.

When they pull up, Paul is just as unhappy as bringing them here as he was hearing the idea in the first place. It had taken three explanations that they were in need of connecting again before they were sent home before he finally agreed.  
But, seeing the place leaves a strange feeling with Louis. It’s a small, bright yellow cottage. Flowers are in bloom all around the home, and it all looks very peaceful. Yet, in a strange way, it reminds him a lot of the child’s story he remembers reading about the witch that lured kids in with an appealing home and then ate them.  
He’s never believed in magic before, but this is making him begin to doubt his own beliefs. Niall seems to believe in it entirely, but all of them are claiming that’s just a part of his Irish background. Then again, that’s what they’ve blamed a lot of Niall’s strange quirks on, so he’s not sure if it’s really an excuse anymore.  
Paul stays in the car as they walk inside and are immediately greeted by a younger woman with soft brown eyes. She takes their names, makes small talk about how she’s enjoyed them on the show, and then shows the five of them to the back room.  
There are paintings on all of the walls, all tasteful and artistic – depicting various scenes from nature. A large, floor to ceiling book case lines the far wall, where three candles of different colors sit, illuminating the space and filling it with a pleasant smell. There aren’t any jars with eyes or brains or rats tails in them, Louis notes, so he feels immediately more at ease.  
There, they’re seated on a sofa just barely long enough to sit all five of them comfortably when an old woman walks in and sits on the single seat right across from them.  
“So, I hear you boys are having trouble connecting.” The woman says. She has thick, grey hair and wrinkles around her eyes, but she still looks happy. She’s only proven right when they all give different answers at the exact same time.  
“Well, not really.” Liam says.  
“Yeah,” Is what Niall decides on.  
“I guess.” Zayn shrugs.  
“No!” From Harry.  
“Kind of.” Louis isn’t sure, suddenly, how this woman is even going to help them. Maybe he hadn’t realized it before, but they were definitely all on different pages. She is still smiling as she looks over all of them, and she almost looks hopeful. It gives a little hope to Louis, that maybe, just maybe, they can make it back to being connected enough to get their group-love back. It’s clear that they need it if they’re going to win this competition, or even come close to it.  
“So, you boys are having trouble connecting and it’s affecting your performance?” Everyone is looking at her a little confused, unsure of exactly how she came to know that, but she doesn’t look fazed. “Well, boys, I have something just for you. I’d like you all to hold hands for one moment.”  
Louis is more than skeptical, but Niall enthusiastically grabs hold of Harry and Zayn’s hands – the two boys sitting beside him – so everyone follows suit. It’s almost silly, how they’re all sitting in a row, holding hands, while an old woman is placing random little things into a dish in front of them.  
“So this is a spell that will help you all connect, to understand each other and find the … groove you need to be in in order to perform your best.” She says, voice very soft. “There is only one rule: all of you must be just as dedicated as the rest, or else the spell will fade. If one of you becomes less dedicated, the distance will become extremely clear to everyone else, and the bond will break.”  
They all nod. Niall is practically bouncing in his seat.  
She places five small pieces of glass into the dish in front of her, then lights it on fire. Louis jerks back, surprised by the sudden turn that this “session” took. But the fire goes out just as quickly as it came on, and the woman reaches into the bowl and in her hand is five glass rings, each with a very faint tint of color.  
“Louis, yours is blue. Niall, yours is yellow. Harry, yours is green. Liam, orange, Zayn grey. If you all wear these to bed tonight, you may take them off in the morning, as the spell will be set. Should you change your mind, all of you must remove the rings before you all fall asleep tonight, or else the spell will only be applied to those who sleep with the rings on.”  
“What exactly is going to happen with this spell?” Louis finally asks, nervousness beginning to take place of the skeptical feeling he’d had before.  
“Well, love. I can’t tell you that. I promise it is nothing bad and nothing that will bring harm to any of you, but it will bring you all very close together and you will have a deeper understanding of one another.  
They all put the rings on and Louis worries that he’s the only one with an unsettled feeling in his stomach, but he doesn’t question it any further.

“We should take the rings off.” Zayn says when they get back to the house. They’re sat in their shared room, each on their own beds, and the tension is thick.  
“If we do it has to be a full group decision.” Louis chimes in.  
“I don’t want to take mine off.” Harry says.  
“I don’t either.” Niall decides. Liam doesn’t look like he wants to make a decision, like he’d just go along with whatever everyone else chooses.  
“It’s a little, like, weird, isn’t it? That lady made it seem so … dangerous and scary. We could wake up in each other’s bodies!”  
“Zayn, we all know you watched freaky Friday last night. Stop projecting.” Harry says with an eyeroll, making Zayn grumble something under his breath.  
“Guys, she said it wasn’t going to be anything bad. So. We might as well just stick with it. If it’s horrible and we hate it, we can always go back and she can undo it.”  
“And nothing might even happen.” Liam finally chimes in.  
“Okay.” Louis says, “So, we leave the rings on, then?” Everyone nods. He can tell Zayn is still more than a little hesitant, but like Niall said, he knows they can always go back and get it undone.  
“We’re going to have good performances from now on, right?” Harry asks Louis quietly as everyone starts to settle in for the night. It’s late and as much as Louis wants to be a night owl, he knows they have to have at least some semblance of a sleep schedule if they’re going to keep up in this competition.  
“I really hope so, Haz.”  
When his head hits the pillow, he’s asleep faster than he has been in a long time.

“Louis what the fuck, mate, it’s three in the morning!” Liam exclaims, his voice loud in the empty room. Louis is eating a bowl of cereal on the small couch in the living room, and the telly is playing a little louder than usual in the background. He’s sitting in just his pants, and the air around him is colder than its felt before.  
He doesn’t remember getting himself cereal and he doesn’t remember getting out of bed, but he doesn’t question it. Maybe he’d sleep walked here or something. It’s not a very good explanation if it could really be counted as one at all, but he decides not to think too much about it.  
“Yeah? I’m awake. So what.”  
“We have a performance in the morning! Are you daft? You’re supposed to be asleep. You’re going to get us eliminated!”  
“I’m going to get us eliminated?” Louis is getting angry now, he places the cereal bowl down on the side table and stands up. “How dare you say something like that! You’re the uptight arse that is making us all so stressed out!” They’re nearly full on arguing now, and it’s loud in the quietness of the house.  
Slowly, the other boys start making their way down the stairs to see what’s going on.  
“Uptight? Yeah, maybe I’m uptight, but if I wasn’t how else would your childish antics be kept in place? You’re meant to be the oldest but you can’t even sit fuckin’ still!” They’re petty insults at best, really, but Louis has been so on edge lately that everything hurts more than it should. He and Liam have had tension between them since the beginning of the show, but they’d never let it out quite like this.  
“You know, maybe I can’t sit still, but at least I give a fuck about this band! You act like, ‘oh, I’m Liam, I’m all high and mighty and mature. But whatever comes just happens and I’ll just roll with it.’ You could give less than a shit if we were eliminated, so don’t go placing all the blame on me you fuckin’ –“  
“Hey!” Harry ends up shouting out, his deep voice reverberating through the entire house. “You two need to knock it off. If we get eliminated tomorrow, it’s no one of our fault. We’re a group, remember? The mistakes of one are the mistakes of all. Placing blame is only going to piss everyone off.”  
“He’s got a point.” Niall and Zayn say at the same time. Louis’ anger is still building as Liam seems to take that in for a moment. The thing is, he knows he’s a bit immature sometimes. He has so many younger siblings that it’s hard to act like an adult all the time. He’s so used to acting hyper and happy and active around his siblings that it’s just what he’s gotten used to. It’s incredibly annoying that Liam would bring something that he really can’t help up in an argument – but not only bring it up, but make everything seem like it’s his fault.  
“No. No, let’s all listen to Liam explain why everything is my fault. It’s okay, Liam. Let it all out. Tell everyone why One Direction isn’t going anywhere because of me. Better yet, since you’ve self-designated yourself the leader, why don’t you just kick me out of the band, huh?”  
“Oh shut the hell up!” Liam responds, and they’re right back at it. The insults are getting deeper, sharper and more aimed right at each other’s throats. By the end of it, Louis has tears in his eyes that he refuses to let spill.  
“Why don’t you just leave the band if you think everyone is just going to kick you out then, huh? We’d probably get further in this without you!” And that’s all it takes. Louis is floored, stunned silent. Liam is fuming but Harry, Zayn, and Niall have shocked expressions on their faces. He goes upstairs quickly and lays down on his bed, curling up in his duvet and trying not to let the tears fall.  
He thought he’d made it – at least to some degree. But this, suddenly, feels like the end. He knows that come morning the other four boys will come to the decision to kick him out, that he’ll no longer be a part of One Direction and everything that he’d hoped for will be done and gone.  
It’s a horrible thought.  
“Lou?” Harry says and suddenly there’s a little weight on the bed. He doesn’t respond, but Harry sighs. “Liam is being daft. We’re all just stressed and you are, too. I know the two of you don’t really get along excellently, but it would be really nice if you would at least play nice until we’re through with tomorrow’s show. You can be at each other’s throats every day except performance day, yeah? At least until you two work through whatever is up.”  
“Have the four of you not decided to just boot me, then?”  
“Liam was absolutely ridiculous in saying that. There’s no way we would even consider doing that. You’re so important to the group, Lou.”  
“Whatever.” He says and sighs. There’s still so much anger and frustration. “I don’t want to be in a band where I’m hated.”  
He wakes with a start, eyes darting around the small enclosure of his bunk, right beneath Harry’s. He’s still just in his pants, but the thought that all of that was just a dream leaves him flooded with relief. He grabs his phone and sees that the time reads just barely past seven, and groans. It was so strange, living out all of his current fears, yet it almost felt cathartic. He and Liam have had the most tension out of any of them since the start of the band, and clearly it’s been bothering him more than ever, if he’s actually starting to dream about it.  
He’s still a little weirded out by his dream, but he doesn’t want to think too much of it. He’s had plenty of weird dreams before.  
Yet, this dream was different – more vivid than anything he’s had in a long time. It felt so real. Had he not woken with a start to the other boys all sleeping soundly, he probably wouldn’t have even realized it was a dream. He doesn’t think he’d had any kind of weird drugs, other than the blunt he and Zayn had shared, and certainly not enough alcohol to warrant such a vivid dream.  
He ignores it anyway.  
And, when they make it through their performance in third place, he forgets about it completely.

They decide to take the rings off the next day, but to all keep them just for novelty sake. Perhaps they hadn’t done anything after all, but they’d made it through without getting eliminated and that’s all they really wanted, so that’s what really counts.  
Practices start going much better. Their harmonies are becoming perfected and their choreography is getting more Intune. He and Liam are still just as on edge with each other as they always have been, perhaps a little more so than usual (which, Louis thinks, is weird since he doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong) but they’re dealing with it just fine.  
The dreams are getting even more vivid. He and Liam have argued two more times in them, and one time he got to overhear a conversation between Zayn and Liam about how nervous Zayn is all the time about going on stage.  
He’s not sure why he’s dreaming so much about the other boys and it’s starting to get more than weird, but he’s stopped questioning it.

But everything nearly comes to a halt when he hurts himself on show day of the third week. He’s stepped on something – he thinks someone said a sea urchin – and Harry has to take him to the hospital.  
He keeps hearing Liam’s voice over and over in his head, about how the group would be just fine without him, though, so he decides not to worry too much. Very few of the doctors on sight speak English, so it takes longer than he would have hoped for him to get someone to check him out.  
They’re meant to perform one hour after he’s finally in an exam room with a doctor that speaks English and his heart is pounding.  
His phone rings as a nurse is wrapping his foot up and he answers quickly.  
“Lou! Where are you? We sound absolutely horrible without you, Lou. We’re going to get eliminated for sure if you don’t get here and everyone is panicking because we have no clue what to do and we’re all so nervous and –“  
“Haz, I’m on my way. I’m about to call a cab.” Ha makes it back five minutes before they’re meant to perform, and the show has them reenact Harry taking him to the hospital and adds the whole group picking him up the next day, but all works out just fine.

“Don’t you think we’d be better off without him, though?” He overhears from the table in the kitchen, as he stands out of sight. With all of the dreams he’s been having lately, he’s quickly learned to identify when he’s dreaming and when he’s actually experiencing something. Liam is sitting with the three other boys and they’re talking, once again, about Louis leaving the band.  
He’s getting quite tired of hearing this, of thinking about this, and it’s starting to make him rather angry.  
“No, Liam. We keep telling you this. You heard us at rehersals the other day. We were horrible without him. We sounded flat and bad and just – we would never make it through without him. The band wouldn’t be the same without him.” Niall says.  
“Well, it’s not like he’s good enough to even get a solo. We could just find someone else to replace those backing vocals.”  
“Would you shut the hell up?” Harry chimes in and Louis is taken a back. “None of us give a shite about your personal grudge against Louis, okay? You keep claiming that he’s not mature enough to be in the band, or whatever, yet you keep bringing up the childish idea of just booting him. Do you know how immature that makes you sound? Children kick people out of things because they don’t like them. Adults learn and deal with their differences. This is real life, Liam. This isn’t some play thing that we’re doing in school. This is our real shot, our only shot at being something together. So either learn to deal with the five of us together or you can leave.”  
Everyone, including Louis, is stunned into silence. Harry is usually the mediator, keeps everyone calm and tries to avoid throwing out his opinions. Louis has always thought that was just because he was the youngest, that it was hard for him to address things that mattered to him because he just wanted to go along with everyone else. But hearing him like that, speaking his mind so openly, completely floors Louis.  
He knows it’s a dream, but it makes him feel good.

The next day, when he’s awake but still slightly sleepy, he decides to bring it up. They’re all sitting on their beds, just woken up by management. “Liam?” He asks, making the other man turn his head towards him.  
“Yeah?”  
“I don’t mean to put you on the spot or anything, but I’ve been thinking about it a bit the last few days, but um.” He pauses, scratches the back of his head. “Do you want me here? Do you think I’m an asset?”  
“To be honest, I didn’t think so before last performance.” Liam says, his voice pretty normal. “But when we were rehersing without you while you were in hospital, I realized that, uhm, you do add something to the band. We were flat and rather bad and certainly wouldn’t have made it through without you.” Louis has to blink a few times, and he can feel a confused look surface on his face. “Why are you looking like that?”  
“I’m um, this might sound a bit weird, but that’s – exactly – word for word what was said in my dream last night. Which is why I’m asking. I just – I’ve had a couple of dreams recently where you’ve said you wanted me out of the band and well… yeah.”  
He suddenly has four faces looking at him, all with confused expressions.  
“Wait, you – what was your dream last night?” Zayn asks.  
“Well, like, the lot of you were sittin’ round the kitchen table and Liam said he wanted me out of the band and Harry proper laid into him and said it was a bad idea.”  
“Louis.”  
“What?”  
“That was what I dreamt of last night.”  
“Erm, me too, actually.” Liam says.  
“This is strange.” Harry says. “Cause, me too.”  
The five of them are just exchanging strange looks before Niall starts laughing. “I knew that woman wasn’t a hoax!”

It’s strange, having dreams at night that he knows he’s sharing with four other people. He can’t really control what he’s doing in his dreams, but everything that he does is honest and real and raw. He hopes that the other boys are in the same predicament. If the lot of them are being forced to speak their mind and be entirely open with one another in their dreams, he thinks he’ll understand about how it would bring them closer together.  
He and Liam hashed out a few more things in their dreams, with open honesty and tried not to let each other get angry. He hopes that’s the beginning of a real friendship between the two of them.

With each performance and each dream, they grow stronger as a band. He and Liam don’t bicker much at all as time goes on, and eventually it stops entirely. They make it through more and more of the rounds and their confidence only grows as they keep going.  
Getting eliminated on the second round from the finish hurts and its another horrible downer – almost exactly like that horrible feeling on the X Factor auditions – but when they’re still signed with Cowell, they know everything is going to be just fine.

  
   
Not winning at the Judge’s House becomes something neither of them are stressed about anymore as they start recording their first real album.  
They’d all had to fly home after their loss and take a week of a break, but nothing could beat the energy that had still been flowing freely between them. In their dreams at night there were parties, nights on the town, and often just the lot of them hanging out in some random, imaginary place and sharing bottles of champagne. It was clear from the beginning that none of them had wanted this to turn out any differently.  
Perhaps being solo sounded good at the beginning, but now that he’s here, he can’t imagine having it any other way. This is the only way it could have ever been and the only way it should have ever been. Now that he and Liam are completely over their little spat, he finds himself excited to wake up every morning, to think about how his life has changed so dramatically practically over night.  
They did their first photoshoot the other day, right in the centre of London, and it was the strangest experience Louis thinks he’s ever had. The photographer had handed them outfits, three each, and sent them into a room to change before herding the lot of them back out, taking pictures, and then sending them back in.  
Of course it was more exciting than anything, and if the other boys felt the same then they were ecstatic about experiencing every bit of the fame experience. They were set to finish the album within a few months, and there was already word about a tour – a tour of their own.  
They’re all on a high that no one can really explain. Except, well, they all understand.

It’s loud, is the first thing Louis notices. There’s screaming and guitars being tuned and their drummer is banging something kind of off beat somewhere in the background. The other boys are filing into the room about the same time as him and they all look just as confused.  
“All right boys, five minutes until curtain!” A woman Louis doesn’t think he’s ever seen before says and starts to usher them closer to the stage. Liam and Harry look just fine, they have smiles on their faces and Harry is doing his signature shitty dance moves that usually make everyone laugh.  
But Louis doesn’t think he could laugh even if he really wanted to.  
He’s sweating. The lights look too bright and Zayn and Niall’s equally panicked expressions aren’t doing anything to ease the worry slowly rising in his throat.  
“We’re going to be great, boys.” Harry says, enthusiasm dripping off of him.  
“Wait,” Louis says, but no one listens. He doesn’t even think anyone can hear him.  
“I don’t know the words –“ Niall speaks up, his voice trembling. “I don’t know the words to any of the songs!” They all pause and look at Niall, but Louis is in the same boat. There are screaming fans out there that expect the best from the five of them, but three of five don’t know the words and don’t know what’s going on.  
“Um,” Is all Harry says, and they’re all staring at each other wide eyed, still.  
“Stage time, boys!” The same woman from before, says, and Louis feels a worse panic rising up in his throat.  
He wakes up with a fast start, heart thrumming in his chest. He’s laying in bed in his newest Los Angeles flat, still, and he realizes quickly that it was just a bad dream. They’re still in the midst of recording their album, and he isn’t going to stand on stage and destroy their entire career that easily.  
He has four texts from the other boys in their group chat. He hadn’t realized entirely exactly how much the dreams were affecting the five of them as a whole, and now a vulnerability he hadn’t even realized he had is out there, wide open, and it’s nerve racking.  
Zayn: Wtf  
Niall: we shud talk abt this  
Harry: yeah we definitely should  
Liam: Tmr?  
Louis: lets meet 4 tea/coffee early tomorrow & talk about it  
He hopes, in the best way, that talking about it will help them all get through it. Maybe they will all find out that their anxieties are similar and that there’s nothing to worry about. It’s probably perfectly normal for a brand new band like them to worry about things like this. That’s the only hope he’s holding on to.  
They’re going to keep recording the album and everything is going to turn out just fine. He knows it. He can feel it deep in his heart that everything they’re doing is only to better their future. It will all be just fine.

The process of recording is so different from what Louis had imagined his entire life when he was just listening to music, but it’s still awesome. They’re starting in Los Angeles, working with a producer he knows he should remember the name of, but he doesn’t, and it’s crazy.  
He’s never been to America before, and now he’s here, in the city of fame and dreams and it’s slowly starting to feel more real than it had before. They’re set to record a few songs here before they fly out to Sweden to work with another artist, to keep their sound interesting, or something like that.  
It’s hard to keep track of everything that’s going on around them because everything is happening so fast, all gogogo at every moment of the day. If they aren’t recording, they’re getting their photos taken or doing an interview or practicing promo on social media or doing something. It’s a fast paced life Louis never really anticipated would come with fame, but it feels good.  
The songs are mostly all written for them, since none of them are totally sure of how to write a great song or really how to do any of this just yet, but none of them mind. The energy between them is high, wired, and always ready for whatever is coming at them next. They’re slowly starting to build even more of a fanbase, and it’s wild.  
During competition, they could mostly go outside just fine, without being swarmed or having too many pictures taken of them. But now, almost everything they do winds up on the internet. It’s a weird feeling for sure, but Louis is in no place at all to complain.  
At first, they’re all incredibly attentive, absorbing every single step of every single process, but as the time goes on, it starts to feel normal. That’s something Louis never thought he’d ever say, let alone think. That fame and the things about it would feel normal.  
He thinks it’s a big contradiction for all five of them, still torn between trying to be young boys who want to fool around and have fun while still balancing a career that none of them had six months ago. It’s a strange feeling, but he wouldn’t change it for the world.

“Okay, so, just basically go down the hill and don’t fall on your arse, ya big bambi!” Niall shouts at Harry as they ride up the ski slope.  
“Like you’ve ever been skiing!” Harry shouts back, and everyone is laughing. They’ve all had a little too much to drink to be able to ski properly, Louis thinks, but he’s sure it’ll all be fun anyway.  
Harry falls down more times than the rest of them combined, but it just makes everything even more fun, makes everything funny, and keeps everyone laughing.  
Louis decides Sweden is his new favorite place. But then again, that’s exactly what he’d said about L.A. when they landed. Everywhere they’ve never been is his new favorite place and he’s beyond thrilled that he’s going to get to travel the world doing what he loves soon enough.  
Their album is coming alone great, and everyone is happy.

“Aw, look at this, Lou.” Harry says with a giggle, scrolling through tumblr while Liam is recording his vocals for the song they’re working on. “Someone thinks Zayn and Liam are in love.” He sing-songs the last word, waggling his eyebrows dramatically.  
“I mean, can’t really blame them.” He responds, getting a little dirty look from Zayn. “The two of you are all over each other, like, all the time.” He’s throwing a hacky sack up and down in the air, trying to contain some of his energy. Zayn just rolls his eyes.  
“And what about the two of you then? Read anything about Larry Stilinson?”  
“Aw! They’re putting us together Haz how cute.”  
“You already act like a married couple anyway. Liam and I are totally just mates.”  
“Oh yeah? Prove it.” Louis says with a cackle.  
“Yeah, mate, dare you to snog Liam and not get all weird about it.” Liam can’t hear them, still has his headphones on and is singing into the mic in the recording booth. Louis notices, finally, that this is a dream. They’re alone in the studio, without the normal group of other people surrounding them, and that’s what gives it away.  
“What?” Zayn says, and his entire face flushes red. “Mate that’s like, that’s totally not fair.”  
“Why not?” Harry chimes in, giggling.  
“Cause like – what if it’s weird!”  
“Then tell him it was a dare. No harm no foul.”  
“You’re all wankers.” They’re all laughing for another moment before Liam is coming out of the booth and Zayn is walking up to him, putting his hands on the other man’s hips, and snogging him.  
It’s a real snog, too. Like the deep, real, whole body snog that Louis thinks he’s only seen in shitty romance movies. Liam is obviously taken aback for a moment, but as they’re all sat there, watching the two of them, it’s clear the exact moment that he melts into it, properly.  
His eyes close and he gets his hands to rest on Zayn’s shoulders, and they’re all frozen in a strange point in time where no one really knows what to do or what to say.  
When they pull apart, it’s completely silent in the room. Niall is staring wide eyed, and he thinks his own face probably looks similar.  
“Now, you and Harry’s turn, Lou. See who the fans are more correct about.” Louis freezes and he and Harry both make eye contact for a brief, but awkward moment.  
Harry leans in first, and Louis lets it happen. Harry kisses dirty – and Louis has really only kissed a few people before, but this feels so different. The world around them almost feels like it’s fading out in the best way and Louis can only really focus on Harry – HarryHarryHarry and he doesn’t want to focus on anything else.

He doesn’t wake with a start this time, but he certainly wakes up hard. His face is flush and embarrassment is seeping through is entire body. Is this normal? Of course he’d wanked to the thought of Harry a once or maybe a few times, but he’d never – he doesn’t think he ever thought of the boys like that. Never in a serious way. But now it’s out there.  
He’s not sure who started the dream – who’s idea it was that was so prominent in their head that it caused all of them to have the same dream – but he’s also not entirely sure he wants to know. It’s something they’re all going to have to talk about and it’s going to be incredibly awkward, but maybe it’s necessary.  
Or maybe Louis will have to pull out his skills of deflecting everything that he doesn’t want to answer. That’s something he’s been good at since he was a child, and he can easily distract the other boys away from a conversation that he doesn’t want to have. It shouldn’t be too hard.

What Makes You Beautiful takes off faster than any of them ever thought it would have. They check the charts regularly and check their twitter DMs, and everything is blowing up right in front of them. Pictures of teenage girls with their faces plastered all over their bedrooms take over social media and it’s so strange.  
“Well, boys, this is just barely the beginning.” Simon says to the five of them one day, and Louis really, really believes him.  
The album is finished and they officially have a release date. Everything is falling in to place exactly how it’s meant to – and Louis couldn’t be happier.

December is cold and wet and it rolls in without warning. They’re going on a tour – a real life, for real, tour, all by themselves as the headliner. They’re set to start in the UK, and Louis is buzzing with an excitement he doesn’t think he’s ever felt before. Travelling had always been something that was rare in his family, since they never were very well off financially, so he can’t even contain how excited he is.  
They’re going to go everywhere – places Louis has never been and places the other boys have never been. They’re going to see the world and they’re going to get to do it while singing with their new best friends in the whole world.  
Nothing else matters.

   
2012 and 2013 both seem to go by in a blur of everything happening all around them too fast and too much. All of them are shoved around and moved from place to place without a lot of time to take anything in. Their dreams aren’t happening as often, and Louis almost wants to blame how tired they all are.  
Photoshoots are becoming more regular, the tours are taking up entire blocks of their years, and social media is taking up hours of each day. Meetings with the label are more often than they aren’t, and it’s different than it was at the beginning.  
They have more money now, more fans, and everything is working out in the best way he ever could have asked for it to. Yet, it’s making everything more stressful. They each have multiple houses now, purely out of necessity. They have to have what their label coined as public houses that the media is allowed to know about, and then they have their private homes where they spend most of their time and the media doesn’t know about.  
Fans have managed to get Harry’s phone number four times in the last year and he’s had to change his number twice as much, but it’s all in good fun. It doesn’t bother them, even though sometimes he knows all of them can’t help but wonder if it should.

“Lads,” Louis brings up one morning. It’s the first time he’s brought something up between the five of them without a dream prompting the discussion. He hopes that it marks some kind of progress between the five of them – with their maturity and with his own personal development. He’s usually the type that would avoid serious conversations to the absolute best of his ability, but he knows this is serious. “Have you ever thought about taking a break?”  
“What?” Is what he gets in unison from three voices, but Zayn remains quiet.  
“Like, not permanent of course. Like, no way. I love you all more than anything and I love all of this, but maybe some time in the future… we could take a year off? Instead of touring. Because it’s great and this is exactly where I want to be and I know it’s exactly where all of you want to be… but maybe if we took a short break and came back to it with a new outlook, we could put out some better stuff?”  
“Yeah, maybe one day, Lou. But we’re on top of the world right now! There’s no way we could give that up!”  
He agrees.

Take Me Home is their best album yet. They all got to write more this time, and it’s a new experience that really brings light to how much fun this profession can be. There’s something so diferent about spending time in a studio singing songs that aren’t their own, versus singing songs that actually mean something to the lot of them. It’s better this way, and the thought of a break goes far out the window when they realize how incredible all of this is.  
The fans take the album even better. It tops the charts quickly and stays there for longer than any of them could have ever hoped for. They’re all able to send thousands and thousands of pounds back home.  
Louis buys his mum a house and spends a week at home right before they’re set to leave for tour, and it feels incredible. This is everything he’s ever wanted in his life.

February 2013 brings the beginning of the next tour, and it’s great. After a couple of weeks off after writing and taking a few days to just breathe ¬– he feels like he’s ready for all of this to come back at full force. It’s hard sometimes – being in the spot light every moment of the day and having every movement he makes analyzed. But it’s another one of those things that he’s learned to cope with, learned to prevent from happening, and learned to even love a little.  
It’s fun. He’ll never say it isn’t. But the fun that it had been in the beginning is slowly starting to fade. Stress lives in each little piece of the life of fame, and while it’s something that each of them have learned to live with differently, it doesn’t make it any less difficult.  
It’s less about the music than he’d originally assumed it was going to be – and that’s okay – but sometimes it’s overwhelming. The year goes by with hours and hours of social media training and interviews and another tour that they’re all excited about, but at the same time they all wish they had a little longer to record and experience the music for what it is.  
Six weeks spent living inside of the recording studio isn’t as much creative freedom Louis always imagined he’d have, but he knows that that’s what they need to do if they want to keep having a new album every year and touring every year. It’s worth it, in the end, when the albums are still just as good and the fun is still there.  
But sometimes, the one thing that was supposed to make their existences a little easier, makes it harder. The dreams help most of the time. They’re usually able to point out some tension that no one was willing to voice or shared fears that no one wanted to deal with, but sometimes they bring up terrible things.  
Terrible things like leaving and wishing none of this would ever have happened. They always deal with it the next morning with a fresh cuppa and sometimes a group cry session, but they always get through it.  
Zayn, Liam, and Niall are becoming a thing, and everyone can tell. Just the way that they’re always closer than necessary and always touching each other when they think no one is looking. Louis and Harry are getting closer, too, almost like they were right in the beginning. Things had kind of faded out with the two of them after the beginning, but now they’re back.  
They have a lot of sex in their shared dreams, sometimes all of them together and sometimes each individually, and it’s not as awkward now as it had been at first, but it’s definitely still one of the things that they’ve all just decided not to talk about.  
Louis tries to bring it up sometimes, just casually, and he usually gets a glare out of it and the conversation goes to another topic.  
The year is good, the tour goes incredibly, and once they’re all home again, everyone feels less on edge.

Tour starts with a bang. It’s a blast and the most fun they’ve had since all of this started. He pulls pranks on stage and tells bad jokes and ribs the boys mercilessly at every point that he possibly can. It’s fun and everyone is feels pretty good about all of it.  
Maybe the exhaustion is starting to wear off or maybe they’re all just finally settling all the way into what their lives are becoming.  
“Do you think this can continue like this? With everything being good and staying good?” Niall brings up in one of the dreams. Each of the tour dates have run together between parties and fun and everything else that Louis isn’t even entirely sure about what city they’re in at this point, but he pays as close of attention as he can to Niall.  
“I think so.” Harry says, voice deep and light and strong all at the same time. “I think that as long as we all care for each other as much as we do now, that nothing could ever separate us, right?”  
“Yeah, yeah. Of course.” Liam says. Louis looks around.  
“Where’s Zayn? He did go to sleep earlier right?”  
“Yeah, he did. Maybe he woke up or something.” There’s an odd feeling in the room, but none of them address it. He’s not sure what it is or why it feels so wrong, but no one says anything.  
He and Harry do a lot of writing in their free time, especially since they’ve been given a lot more creative freedom on this album than any of the previous ones. Louis enjoys writing and he knows Harry does, too, and it’s incredibly calming.  
The two of them had done a good amount of writing for Midnight Memories, and that only spurred them on, he thinks. Liam hums beats any time he thinks of a new one, Niall is constantly strumming on his guitar, Zayn is pulling up riffs from songs he likes to use for inspiration, Harry hasn’t stopped playing Stevie Nicks, and well, Louis writes. He writes down word combinations whenever he feels anything at all – writes down stupid little lyrics that maybe one day he could turn into a song and he also writes down serious lyrics that he knows will become songs.  
He writes every time he has the chance and it’s liberating.  
“Got anything new today, Lou?” Niall asks as he plops down on the couch, a bowl of cereal in his hand. He’s been writing in his journal for over an hour now, playing with the lyrics to a song that he isn’t sure is too sad or not. So he flips the page, instead, to a song he’s been excited to share.  
“Well, you know that dream we had the other night?” He asks, making Niall quirk an eyebrow. “The like, really orgy-like one?” Harry coughs and Niall’s entire face turns bright red.  
“Mate – we don’t talk about –“  
“Shut up. I wrote a song about it.”  
“You didn’t.”  
“I did.”  
“Well, lets hear it then.” Harry says with a slightly forced laugh.  
“I obviously changed the lyrics to make it a little more straight, but well, you know.  
Sweet, where you lay,  
Still a trace of innocence on the pillow case,  
Waking up beside you I’m a loaded gun,  
Can’t contain this anymore,  
I’m all yours, I’ve got no control – no control.”  
Everyones quiet for a moment as they listen to the words Louis sings, and then Harry is the first to speak up after that.  
“We’re gonna put a sex song on the album?”  
“We’re definitely putting a sex song on the album.” Niall says with a loud laugh. Louis just grins.

Tour keeps going somewhat in the same fashion, after that. They sing, they write, they play pranks, they have fun, and they fuck in their dreams. It’s a lot better than it has been in a long while.  
But, as they come closer to their final dates, things quickly start getting hard. Management is starting to pressure them to have all of the songs written and finalized so they can jump right into recording as soon as they get home, and it’s stressful.  
Everyone is tired all over again.  
It’s almost funny how the feeling comes in and goes out in a wave like pattern. First they’re exhausted and done and ready to quit – then they feel like they’re on top of the world.  
But the thing is, it’s almost exhausting to go through those motions, just in itself.  
It’s something none of them want to admit, but it’s clear in the way that the parties are slowly getting less often and the celebrations are more dull than they were before. It’s been hard – working nearly non-stop for four years – but it’s still a blessing and none of them can deny that.  
They’ve grown so much together in these years that everything is starting to feel right. They’re a top-chart band, putting out a nice mix of what they started with – the teeny-pop that critics can never let them live down – with the same amount of rock inspiration and the kinds of things that all of them enjoy.  
It’s exhausting, though, and that’s lately been one of the main topics of conversation in their dreams. They’re all tired. They’re all slowly starting to get burned out, no matter how much all of them love doing what they’re doing.  
It’s been a whirlwind of everything always happening around them and it’s all too much sometimes, but at the same time he thinks they all want more. This life isn’t exactly what they signed up for – not in the way that it has been – yet it’s everything they always wanted.  
Despite the exhaustion and the crazy months of being on the road and not seeing their families, it’s been incredible. He knows none of them would have it any other way.

As soon as they get home, they’re back to living in the recording studio. Louis is pretty sure he’s singing the words to FOUR in his sleep at this point, recording and re-recording and fine tuning and doing everything all too fast.  
It’s a good album, though, with just the right amount of sad and happy and everything they all wanted on it. Harry got his rock-eque tunes, Zayn got a little bit of his R&B, Louis got a little bit of his bubble gum pop, and Liam got his top-40 pop. It’s a good mixture, he thinks.  
He has a hunch that it’s going to be their best selling album yet, and as soon as they release it, he’s happy to see exactly how well the fans are really taking it.

He’s sitting at home, drinking his morning cuppa when he gets a message in his group chat. It’s from Paul – who rarely ever messages all of them at the same time – and he’s asking them all to come down. Louis immediately feels the nerves, the fear that something bad happened, but he tries to push it away as he gets ready a little faster than he normally would and rushes down to the studio.  
Everyone is there, all sat around the couches, when he shows up. He sits beside Harry as he always does, and then it’s quiet. No one says anything and Paul is just smiling a soft, fond smile.  
“You know I love you boys, right?” Paul says. It’s right after the last tour date has been announced and ticket sales have opened up. They’re going to have to tour without Paul, and something about that doesn’t really feel right. “But it’s just time for me to move on.” They all stare at Paul – the man they’d started to consider the One Direction Dad – as he tells them all he’s leaving.  
“We love you too, Paul.”  
“Even though you’ve managed to turn my hair totally grey and probably caused me more stress in these last four years than my entire life –“  
“But at least you had fun doing it!”  
“Yes, I really did, boys.” Paul say sand they all hug him tightly. They all know he has a family and a life that maybe wasn’t prepared to lose him to the level of fame the boys he’s been babysitting have achieved. They all know he hadn’t expected any of this, just like none of them had ever really been able to see themselves where they are now.  
It’s a good end, he thinks, as they all watch Paul pack up the rest of the things he’d brought to work that day and walk out. It’ll be weird not seeing him in the following months, days, years, however long that they have together. But they can get through just about anything together.

The year starts strange.  
Where the dreams are normally happy and enthusiastic, occasionally sexual, and even more often just a big dump of feelings, more recently they’ve been dark and sad. Zayn has been a feature of most of them, usually sitting far away from where the rest of them are sitting or sometimes he won’t even be in the dream at all.  
It’s strange. Throughout the last five years, they’ve yet to have a single dream that doesn’t have all five of them involved. But sometimes when they wake up and ask Zayn if he had a dream the night before, he’ll just shrug or shake his head.  
Louis has a bad feeling about it from the beginning, and it ends up being one of the main topics of their dreams for a long time, before they finally get the text.  
Zayn asks the four of them to meet up somewhere, and Niall offers up his LA home. Louis and Harry are together on the way there, holding hands as the reality sets in.  
The thing is, they already know what’s going to happen. It’s been coming for a while now, but it’s still nerve racking. Louis doesn’t want to hear it and he knows the other boys don’t, either. He doesn’t want to hear that their little dream bubble they’ve been living in, that their wonderful boy-band world was coming to an end.  
He’s long since known that the lot of them wouldn’t be able to live in their happy go lucky world forever, but just the thought that it was beginning to crumble is almost too much to handle.  
“I’m not ready for this.” He whispers to Harry, a frown on his face.  
“Me, neither. But I suppose it was bound to happen. There’s nothing we could have done.”  
“Yeah, you’re right.”  
When they pull up to Niall’s house, Harry punches in the key code to the gate, and drives through with ease. They’ve been here before, had parties here, celebrated birthdays here, had lad’s nights here, and it’s almost beginning to feel tarnished.  
He knows he shouldn’t let a single thing ruin so many good memories, but he can’t help it. Harry parks the car and the two of them walk up to the door, where Niall quickly lets them in.  
Liam comes in about ten minutes later, and the five of them are all sitting completely still. Zayn tells the news and frames it like it wasn’t entirely his fault, but they all know where the blame lies. None of them are exactly happy with their management situation, that’s something that’s been universally known between the five of them, and their thousands of fans online, for years. But Zayn has just suddenly decided that he’s the most unhappy with the situation and he needs to run before it destroys him.  
It almost feels like a personal attack, in a way. Even though he knows it’s just a well-practiced speech that likely doesn’t really have any meaning, it still doesn’t feel right.  
They all knew it was coming before Zayn even said anything. It’s painful, still, is the thing. They’re all sat around Niall’s living room sofa in LA, a panoramic view of the ocean surrounding them, and yet, all Louis can feel is the hurt.  
They’ve grown so much as musicians, as people, as friends in the years they’ve been together, yet nothing feels okay anymore. Zayn has just dropped the bomb that might end them for good, and it’s a nightmare.  
Of course, the lot of them have known that the day would come where they wouldn’t be a band anymore. It was a destined future that was always just waiting right behind the corner that was entirely unavoidable. But out of everyone, he doesn’t think he expected Zayn to be the first to leave.  
It’s been obvious he was uncomfortable with the level of fame they’ve had since the beginning, that his anxiety flares up more than usual right before they get on stage and he’s always had a problem with the control. It’s a terrible thing to know that Zayn has been hurt so badly by something the rest of them enjoy so much, but it’s understandable. Perhaps this is the kind of career that isn’t meant for everyone, and he hopes Zayn will be able to move on and find something else that he loves doing that he can do all the time that makes him happy and doesn’t leave him with anxiety.  
They’ve all been seeing the dreams of Zayn being farther away than the rest of them, and sometimes completely being omitted from the dreams at all. But hearing the words, they’re all suddenly very quiet.  
“I’m sorry to just throw this on you all so suddenly –“  
“Oh shut up.” Liam says, scoffing, before he just stands and walks away. It’s incredibly unlike Liam, but it’s understandable. Zayn curls up on himself just a bit, swallows hard, and the silence continues to consume the rest of them.  
He knows the two of them have always been the closest, especially just by the amount of times he’s had to watch the two of them fuck in the dreams. Yet, he feels the ache between the five of them.  
Zayn pulls his little ring out of his pocket, from all those years ago, and holds it out for all of them to see. The grey is faded now, from all the times he’s worn it and all the time it’s been tossed through the washer, but it’s still clearly recognizable.  
“I suppose we’ve seen it coming.” Harry says, then, clearing his throat and cutting through the silence. “With the dreams and such. Um, yeah.”  
“Seeing it coming doesn’t make it any less shit.” Louis says with a frown. Zayn has been his best mate through all of this. They were the closest in their friendship, constantly pulling pranks and having fun with both each other and everyone around them. So. It hurts. It hurts a lot worse than he would like to admit and it really just sucks.  
“I know. And um, I know that the dreams were meant to stop if I became less dedicated, but I would like them to stop completely… so I’m going to break this now.” Louis feels an ache in his heart he can’t entirely explain.  
They toured four and it was incredible. It was a great last run and everything came out great.  
“Just go, Zayn. You’re not helping anyone by staying.” Liam says, eyes red with tears. That’s the only invitation Zayn needs to leave before he smashes the glass ring beneath his boot and walks out of the door.

The year goes on without Zayn.  
They announce on the Late Late show that they’ll be continuing without Zayn and that’s the first time that it really feels real. It doesn’t hurt so much anymore, especially as they begin to release their first single without him.  
It’s a hit, even without promo, and everything feels okay for the first time since Zayn left.

They’re all huddled together for the last time as a band, at least for a while. It’s something that’s been coming since none of them renewed their contracts, but it’s something that they all know they need. It hurts, to let everything go, but Louis knows just as well as the other boys that it’s important. They’ll grow individually for a few years, and then come back, together, stronger than they ever have been.  
Made in the A.M is Louis’ favorite album they’ve put out. It feels the most real, the most like them, and it makes him feel like Zayn leaving might have actually been a good thing. They’ve grown together, but they can only grow even more as they continue to discover themselves.  
It’s a terrifying thought, knowing that the five of them are going to throw themselves out there all by themselves. It’s going to be very different, but he knows all the same that they’re always going to be The Boys, and there’s nothing that can ever change that.  
“Let’s go out with a bang, boys.” Louis whispers softly.  
New Years Rockin’ Eve is something Louis had envisioned himself performing on even when he was a child. He’d play air guitar and pretend that he was the one headlining such a massive performance. He knows that the other boys have had similar feelings with other venues and he knows even more than each and every time that they performed at one of those dream venues, they’ve always been incredibly supportive of each other.  
As they go out and sing their hearts out, it feels like a good ending. It’s not permanent, and it never was intended to be, but they go out well.  
“This isn’t it, right?” Harry asks in their dream that night.  
“Of course not.” Louis scoffs.  
“Even if it were,” Liam says softly. “We’re all clearly still dedicated. And I’d be more than happy to share my dreams with the lot of you every night for the rest of my life.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope this fulfilled the prompt! I wish I could have made it longer and maybe added a few more things, but alas. I wanted to add more to each year, but I also didn't want to leave this unfulfilled any longer than it needed to be. So, I hope you just enjoyed the ot5 friendshipness.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading – and if you _really_ enjoyed this story and want to support your local fanfic author, you can   
> [](https://ko-fi.com/A237HRB)


End file.
